 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Islamabad (AFP) April 27, 2011 India and Pakistan on Wednesday began their first trade talks since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, opening a two-day session designed to boost business between the nuclear-armed rivals. India blamed the attack -- in which gunmen killed 166 people -- on the banned Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistan has acknowledged that the plot was hatched at least partly on its soil. Pakistan commerce and trade secretary Zafar Mahmood and his Indian counterpart Rahul Khullar led the talks at a five-star hotel in Islamabad. "I believe that this meeting will take the dialogue process forward and by the end of the meeting all issues relating to facilitation and promotion of bilateral trade could be addressed with consensus," Mahmood said. Mahmood said the talks had an "open agenda" and the two sides would discuss "all the issues" of interest to both countries. He said improving trade would economically benefit both countries and the region. Pakistan's economy languishes far behind that of India. "Pakistan understands that there is a great potential to further increase the bilateral trade," Mahmood said. Khullar called for a quick turnaround of trade after four previous rounds of commerce talks ground to a halt in the wake of the Mumbai attacks. "This is a process that was interrupted and that must resume and go on. It must acquire significantly fast momentum if only to catch up for the time that we have lost," Khullar said. "We are ready and willing to move forward and our only perspective here is one of constructive engagement to move the bilateral trade agenda and commercial agenda ahead and fast." Trade between Pakistan and India is around $2 billion. Acrimonious ties between the neighbours eased last month when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani watched the India-Pakistan World Cup cricket semi final in northern India. The nuclear-armed nations have fought three wars since attaining independence in 1947, two over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links News From Across The Stans
Taliban jailbreak could hit NATO efforts: expertsKandahar, Afghanistan (AFP) April 26, 2011 An audacious jailbreak which saw hundreds of Taliban escape an Afghan prison through a tunnel threatens to undermine war gains claimed by US-led troops at a crucial time, experts say. NATO forces in the south, the key battleground in nearly a decade of fighting and the Taliban's heartland, claimed major progress in operations last year following a troop surge led by the United States. We ... read more |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook
